IP and IT

• A costly e-commerce mistake

• E-commerce typo costs hotel dear

• Are You Data Friendly

• Many businesses regard the Data Protection Act 1998 as something that merely requires a lot of form filling and the payment of fees, but there is a lot more to it than that. The purpose of the Act is to protect a person's right to privacy with regard...

• Auction watch services catch eBay fraudsters

• Auction watch service against eBay fraudsters

• Avatars tackled for libel

• Avatars tackled for libel

• Beat the commute and regain the work-life balance

• Flexible working

• Blogging makes writer £70,000

• Blogging makes profit.

• Bogus online reviews face ban

• fake reviews and sales to end

• Boycott Wal-Mart website allowed

• Boycott Walmart site allowed.

• Burst bubbles for O2

• Comparative advertising-O2 dispute-trade mark infringement

• Burst bubbles for comparative advertising-burst bubbles for O2

• Comparative advertising-O2 dispute-trade mark infringement

• CFI finds likelihood of confusion between quartz marks for software

• CFI finds likelihood of confusion between QUARTZ marks for software

• Community trade mark fees to be reduced

• The European Commission has indicated that it intends to make a significant reduction in the level of Community trade mark (CTM) fees in order to make the CTM system more accessible to small and medium-sized businesses , although it does not say when...

• Confidential information heading out the door

• Confidential information loss.

• Confidential information heading out the door

• Confidential information loss.

• Court of Appeal allows franchisor to claim for loss of franchise business

• The Court of Appeal has partly upheld an appeal by a claimant against the High Court's decision to dismiss his claim relating to the loss of his franchisees. The Court of Appeal held that the judge in the High Court was entitled, on the...

• Court of Appeal dismisses appeal over copyright ownership of computer programs

• Court of Appeal dismisses appeal over copyright ownership of computer programs

• Court of Appeal partly allows appeal in dispute over LONSDALE licence agreements

• Court of Appeal partly allows appeal in dispute over LONSDALE licence agreements

• Courts install wi-fi facilities

• Courts install wi-fi facilities

• Data Loss - What to Do

• The Information Commissioners Office (ICO) has recently issued guidance for organisations that lose personal data, having reported that it has been notified of nearly 100 such incidents to date. One of the less intuitively obvious suggestions is to...

• Data Protection breaches-custodial sentences promised

• Prison promised for data abusers

• Data Protection breaches-custodial sentences promised

• Data protection abuse-prison promised

• Data Retention Regulations now in force

• data regulations

• Data protection law protects illegal downloaders

• Illegal downloaders helped by data protection laws.

• Dealing With Subject Access Requests

• The Data Protection Act 1998 gives individuals the right to access information held about them by organisations. The Act governs how organisations can use the personal information they hold including how they acquire, store, share or dispose of it. ...

• Design rights infringement-the grass is not always greener..

• Mower design rights dispute

• Direct Marketing Via E-mail - Regulations

• UK law relating to the sending of unsolicited direct marketing material by electronic means care based on the EC Directive on Privacy and Electronic Communications. A major aim of the Directive was to cut down on the amount of spam that e-mail users...

• Disclosure of confidential information through social networking sites

• Disclosure of confidential information through social networking sites

• Diversion of telephone numbers amount to unlawful interference with business

• Telephone line diversion

• Does the Data Protection Act (DPA) 1998 apply to paper records?

• Data protection for paper records.

• E-Commerce Law - Do You Comply

• The Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations introduced specific legislation to underpin e-commerce. If your business has an Internet presence then you need to make sure that you are not falling foul of these new rules. The Regulations do not just...

• ENISA report highlights risks of social-networking sites

• Dangers of online social networks

• Email - Who Owns the Copyright?

• Copyright is a right which exists without any specific steps having to be taken. It applies whenever there is a work created which contains original skill or labour. It applies to written material and that includes email, as a recent High Court ruling has...

• Email Regulations for Businesses

• Although it has long been regarded as best practice, new regulations have made it compulsory for certain business information to be present on corporate websites and e-mails or other electronic communications, including invoices and order forms. The...

• Email marketing abuse is rampant

• Email abuse of marketing.

• Facebook reputational risks for businesses

• Facebook: reputational risks for corporates

• Fighting the phishers

• Fighting the phishers

• Framing-the legal issues

• As you may know hyper-text mark up language (html) is the language of websites. It allows pages to be linked easily. In websites you often see hyper-links allowing you to jump to another site or to the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) of another webpage....

• Franchisee gets no help from the Data Protection Act

• Franchisee and data protection-who owns the data?

• Franchisee gets no help from the Data Protection Act

• Franchisee and data protection

• Freedom of Information - What it Means in Practice

• The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 2000 came fully into force on 1 January 2005 and it has serious implications for businesses doing business with the public sector. The reason for this is that because one of the aims of the Act is to engender greater...

• Google in breach of copyright

• Google in breach of copyright.

• Gowers Review-the first concrete development-new copyright powers for Trading Standards Officers

• Gowers review gives Trading Standards new powers.

• High Court considers UK and US copyright in Star Wars "Stormtrooper" costume

• Star Wars IP conflict

• High Court considers dispute over WORLD CUP WILLIE trade marks

• FA beats Jules Rimet Cup to win 1966 mascot. The High Court has found that the Football Association (FA) could prevent applications by Jules Rimet Cup Ltd (JRCL) to register as trade marks WORLD CUP WILLIE (the mark), and a device mark combining the...

• High Court continues interim injunction in customer list case

• High Court continues interim injunction in customer list case

• High Court implies terms into settlement of copyright infringement claim

• Settlement duties inferred that those owed to court are owed to claimant also.

• High Court orders website operator to disclose users' identities

• Website defamers identity revealed

• High Court refuses to imply assignment into software development contract

• Software ownership would not be assigned

• High Court rules ex-employees infringed database right by copying electronic files

• ex-employees who copied and retained various documents belonging to their ex-employer, such as customer contact details and sales figures

• Home business trends for 2007.

• Home working trends for 2007.

• Home workers have higher levels of health, wealth and happiness.

• Happy home workers are more content.

• House of Commons Justice Committee reports on protection of private data

• data protection breach by HMRC

• ICO brings successful prosecution for unlawful trade in personal information

• Unlawful trade in personal information.

• ICO issues press release on festive photographs at schools

• School play photos are allowed.

• ICO orders Leeds to disclose

• ICO orders leeds Council to release questionnaire information.

• ICO proposes additional powers and penalties under Data Protection Act

• New powers for ICO wanted

• ICO statement on proposed government communications database

• ICO statement on proposed government communications database

• IPO publishes booklet on licensing IP

• IPO publishes booklet on licensing IP

• IPO rejects Target's challenge to Music Choice's trade marks

• IPO rejects Target Application

• IR35 update

• IR35 Dragonfly decision

• Information Tribunal orders disclosure of draft government WMD dossier

• FOIA on Iraq

• Intel negligent in causing depression illness

• Intel negligent for causing stress.

• Is Your Website Disability-Friendly?

• The British Standards Institution has published (at 30) new guidance on making sure that your website is disability-friendly. Under the Disability Discrimination Act , it is unlawful for a service provider to discriminate against a disabled person by...

• L'Oreal wins trade mark appeal

• L Oreal wins trade mark appeal The cosmetics giant won its appeal to the Court Of Appeal(CA) towards the end of last year when the court overturned an earlier decision by the High Court that had sent shockwaves-no pun intended-through...

• Misuse of weblog by advertiser

• Weblog was misleading advertising.

• More trouble for Google-MTV attack YouTube

• More trouble for Google-MTV attack YouTube

• Music in the workplace? Get a licence.

• Workplace music needs a licence

• New rules for company information

• New information now mandatory on company websites

• Nominet to launch online domain name transfer service for registrants

• Nominet to launch online domain name transfer service for registrants

• Ofcom consults on charges for 0870 numbers and regulation of 087 numbers

• Ofcom consults on charges for 0870 numbers and regulation of 087 numbers

• Ofcom says no privacy rights for member of public filmed drunk

• Ofcom says no privacy rights for member of public filmed drunk

• Online advertisers use online video gamers to boost sales.

• Online gaming boost for advertisers.

• Online shopping boosts retailers.

• Growth in online selling brings Christmas cheer.

• Open source software-know the risks

• Liability for failings of open source software is a growing business risk for companies using free software developed by a collaboration of software programmers who do not in the end own the copyright. In the event of copyright...

• Open source software-software developer advised

• open source and ownership of IP development

• Overview: Changes under the 2006 Act of relevance to IP&IT

• Overview: Changes under the 2006 Act of relevance to IP&IT

• Patent Dispute Resolution Service

• The UK Intellectual Property Office (formerly the Patent Office) offers a dispute resolution service which is aimed at preventing unnecessary litigation over patent disputes. The new opinions service allows anyone to request an opinion on any UK patent,...

• PhonepayPlus launches review of mobile content premium-rate services

• PhonepayPlus launches review of mobile content premium-rate services

• Pre-company formation IP

• Copyright ownership in new company

• Pre-contract negotiations do not help deciding terms of agreement

• Pre-contract negotiations

• Protecting Your Design Rights

• Protecting intellectual property has always been a complex area of law, but in one specific area things may be getting clearer. The Registered Designs Regulations 2001 include several protections for inventors of designs. If you have a new design which...

• Protecting website copyright

• Protecting website copy

• Registry Decisions Do Not Bind Court

• The decision in the 2006 case involving L Or al, in which the cosmetics giant was rebuffed in its attempt to prevent a smaller producer, called Special Effects, bringing to the market products which could be confused with its own Special FX range,...

• Residential addresses are exempt

• ICO and council win battle in FOIA tussle over residential addresses.

• Revised sentencing guidelines for trade mark offences

• Revised sentencing guidelines for trade mark offences

• Skipton Financial Services in breach of data laws

• ICO accepts undertaking from financial services company for breach of DPA

• Spicy Spicy not so Nicey

• Google sued for trade mark infringement

• The Economist fails to obtain transfer of theeconomist.com

• The Economist fails to obtain transfer of theeconomist.com

• The Eight Data Protection Principles

• Anyone processing personal data must comply with the eight enforceable principles of good practice. Here is a checklist. Data must be: fairly and lawfully processed; processed for limited purposes; adequate, relevant and not...

• The dangers of online portrayals

• MySpace and other online dangers for job candidates.

• The legal future is digital

• The future of the UK legal profession is digital declares an EU Lawyers group. The Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE) has adopted draft guidelines which means chip and pin ID cards...

• The power of social networking

• Often in the news for the wrong reasons-grooming, online suicides, defamation etc etc-HSBC earlier this year succumbed to student lobbying via the internet when students began a protest blog on Facebook against overdraft interest charges that were...

• Tom Cruise beats cybersquatter for TomCruise.com

• Tom Cruise beats cybersquatter

• Two cows, a cat and no hey diddle diddle

• Domain name cannot be owned by pet/animal.

• Unfair terms: reasonableness of exclusion clause

• Business to business exclusion clauses

• Vexatious requests for FOIA

• Freedom Of Information Act and vexatious requests.

• Vexatious requests for FoIA

• Freedom Of Information Act and vexatious requests.

• Watch out for bogus websites

• Copying websites-criminals-real danger.

• Wayne Rooney scores in domain name dispute

• Wayne Rooney beats cybersquatter

• Web content watch service

• Webcontent watch for infringement

• Website and Email Regulations

• Since January 2007 it has been compulsory for certain business information to be present on corporate websites and emails or other electronic communications, including invoices and order forms. The regulations apply to all limited companies and...

• What is Personal Data?

• The Definition of Personal Data is contained in s1 of the Data Protection Act 1991. Personal Data is data that relates to a living individual who can be identified from the data or from the data and other information which is in possession of, or likely to...

• What to do When Your IT Doesn't Work

• These days it is increasingly the case that when your IT doesn't work, neither does your business. Clearly, the best way to deal with IT problems is prevention, which means doing regular backups, proper systems maintenance, keeping anti-virus protection up...

• illegal downloads

• Illegal downloading blocked